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The wily DIY Cable Makers Resource Guide

[Italian version]

The most Questions I got after the Interconnect Articles appeared where:

Where do I buy all this Cable-Stuff?

Okay. I do almost all my Electronic Shopping at the Maplin Shop in Wood Green. Them Guy's nowadays keep a bit stock of my favorite tidbits. Ask for Nick, he knows his way around there like no-one else.

But what if you don't live in North London?

Okay, you can order from Maplin from all over the World, even via e-mail or on the Internet. But you must know the Stock-Number. The only way to get the Stock-Number is to have a Catalog. The Catalog costs money and there is the end of the line for most people. Too much hassle. They promise a full on-line Catalog soon.

A Company which has full on-line shopping and catalog already is RS-Components. But they deal mostly with trade-customers and do not necessarily ship outside Europe.

So here I include all the Stock-numbers for the Stuff I use for both Maplin Electronics and RS-Components where applicable. This guide covers both Speaker-Cable and Interconnect-Cable Materials. The Prices shown are indicative only (they are correct as per the catalogs on my Desk) and are in UK Pound including VAT (Viciously Added Tax).

With any new Project I will try to ensure the materials used are included in the Guide.

Speaker-Cable:

The best cheap Speaker-Cable - Category 5 (or better) LAN-Cable when used as at least two Cables twisted together per run. All conductors in each of the two cables are connected together to form hot and cold.

My recommendation is the Maplin Stuff in fetching purple color with a LSZH Sheath:

Also good is the more ordinary stuff:

or from RS-Components a "duplex" Cable which has a Figure-8 style with two length together already but only is available in Bulk (305m):

A very alternative Cable (which I personally would never use - included for completeness only) is PTFE Insulated silver-plated stranded Copper in 12 Gauge (twist two length together tightly per Speaker-Cable) from RS only
The best Cable for internal wiring inside Speakers or Poweramp's in my opinion is twisted together wire-wrap wire. I use four or seven individual Wires twisted together and twisted again together in Groups of four or seven to get suitable Current Capacity. The 7 X 4 Cable is about 15.5 Gauge while the 7 X 7 Cable is about 12.5 Gauge. Practicality dictates to use such Cable only for short Distances. I also use this wire for my X-1.5 and 3.0 Interconnects and
Here is the Maplin stuff:

Or:

Or:

The best Cable for longer runs is based on a Satellite TV-Coax Cable. This is the basic Cable for my "UBYTE-2" Speaker-Cable. It is also used in my "UBYTE-I" Interconnect Cable. Here is the Maplin stuff:

Or:

Or from RS-Components:

My favorite RCA Plugs are only available from Maplin. I tend to use them in the two different Colours to denote the different Channels with the cheesy stick on foils in black/red removed. These Plugs are PTFE insulated and they look really cool. They are sold in pairs:

Or:

Maplin also sells the professional Neutrik Phono-Plugs, but they don't sound any better but are way more expensive. For professional Impression they are hard to beat however. Sold as Pairs marked Black/Red:
And if you want to replace the cheesy RCA Sockets on your CD-Player, Preamp, Poweramp or Integrated with some Quality PTFE insulated Sockets, try these (I have seen identical looking Items on the back of really expensive gear). They have a Black or Red identification Band and come with PTFE Washers for insulated mounting on the Chassis:

Or:

Polyolefin heatshrink as used for the UBYTE Cables. Supplied as meters or in 5m length by Maplin. the longest length in one piece Maplin does is 10m. You need the 6.4mm Stuff to re-insulate individual FT100/CT100 Cables after stripping of the PVC Sheath and the Braid. The 12.7mm Stuff can be used to combine two re-insulated cables for the Speaker-cable.:

Or:

Or:

Or:

You can also get the stuff from the RS-Components Web-Site.

© Copyright 1998 Thorsten Loesch

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